The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, took advantage of the inauguration of the political course in the Carballeira de Cotobade (Pontevedra) to deliver a speech with clear electoral content for the upcoming local and general elections, and to launch a torrent of harsh criticism towards the ineffectiveness of Pedro Sánchez’s Government regarding the Ceuta crisis, while announcing three immediate commitments. The first will be the already convened gathering on September 2 in the squares of all municipalities, in line with what is planned by the FEMP, to emphasize his statement that Ceuta is not alone and is as much Spain as the Carballeira de San Xusto itself where he affirmed it. Feijóo reiterated there that he will be at the scheduled gathering in Ceuta that afternoon at eight o’clock. The second commitment will be the summoning of the director of the National Intelligence Center, Esperanza Casteleiro, in the Senate, where the PP holds an absolute majority and can set the sessions it wants, “to tell the truth,” said the popular leader. And the third commitment will be the PP’s involvement in the case already opened in the National Court “so that those responsible for the abandonment of Ceuta must answer to justice.”
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The president of the PP held the first rally of the new political course this Saturday in this native and symbolic forest of Cotobade, which he described as “the one of change in the Government so that Spain works.” The opening acts, the local mayor, Jorge Cubela, the president of the Provincial Council, Luis López, and the president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, boasted about the agreement with the storms of these days to facilitate the event’s development and predicted that next year Feijóo will star there, but already as president of Spain.
Feijóo, therefore, felt in his element, with his people, in his land, and divided his long speech into two chapters. Ceuta and everything else, that is, elections. In both cases, with the common denominator that Pedro Sánchez and his Government are to blame for everything for doing nothing.
The popular leader redefined the PP acronym as embodying “prudence and peace,” but was little or not at all lenient with Sánchez and his handling of the Ceuta crisis. He predicted that in the next general elections, scheduled for 2027, he will win again as in 2023, but “with the necessary force so that those who have lost do not govern.” And it was in that climate that he acknowledged that the course starting now is “different and special” because of what is at stake for him and Spain. And it was then that he assured: “The PP is ready for Spaniards to cast their vote of anger and hope in our party.” Feijóo thus maintained that “there is a collective enthusiasm to drive political change in Spain.”
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Regarding Ceuta, he repeated the messages that he and other PP leaders have been hammering since this crisis began and that they have expressed with the utmost force during this past week of appearances in Congress, awaiting the final one that will take place next Thursday by the president himself in a special plenary session. Feijóo blames everything that happened on Sánchez’s “arrogance and indifference,” now “because of the invasion of Ceuta,” but earlier he cited cases of forest fires, doctors’ strike, inflation, the DANA storm, the power outage, or the poor condition of trains and highways.
The opposition leader built that first rally of the long upcoming electoral campaign on the basis that what has been seen in Ceuta these days is “the symptom of Sánchez’s collapsed Government” and the epicenter of what he could do differently with his management. He praised the work of the security forces, the Army, healthcare workers, and the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, attributing it as his own, and did not condemn or mention at any time anything about the episodes of violence in recent hours nor did he question Morocco’s role in this conflict.
Feijóo thus contrasted the figure of Vivas with that of Sánchez and with his own: “The State was him (Vivas) and the Government abandoned it in his hands.” He held the president of the Government responsible for having seen “Spain turned off, burned, and on fire.” The PP leader showed himself, for his part, “prepared for what is coming and it is a lot,” also “to rebuild all of Spain, because everything is damaged and everything must be rebuilt,” and asked for massive votes not to be left at the doors as in 2023: “Sanchism is finished and now its death must be certified at the polls.” And he concluded: “I am not an artificial and cardboard candidate. I know what must be done after Sánchez and I will do it. I will not be a perfect president, but I will be present. I will not run away from problems, but I will tell the truth. Waiting is over. We must not arrive to be, but to change the country.”
